Looney Tuning
01-04-2010, 05:07 PM
This 2010 Evo X belongs to forum member Antox18. I believe that this is the first Evo X to be tuned in SoCal. The second one was done by Charlie on the same day but later that evening. The car had the following mods:
UR UICP/LICP.
UR intercooler
AEM intake
TBE
TP
Intakes on an Evo X tend to skew the fuel trims positive. The AEM intake can skew the fuel trims up to the maximum ECU allowed 12.5%. Meaning the ECU will add 12.5% more fuel because it sees a lean condition. This is done during idle and cruising. The bad part is that the cruising trim is added to WOT AFR operation.
So let us say that you went to a shop and the shop installed an exhaust and an intake on your car. Then they put the car on a dyno and tuned it. They did not drive the car long enough for the cruise trims to get to their maximum limit. For the sake of argument the trims were at +4% and the AFR was set at 11:1.
You drive the car for a while and then you log the AFR again and you notice that your AFR is richer at 10.1:1. What the hell happened? Well dear reader, your trims have drifted positive into +12%. So the ECU added 8% fuel (12-4=8) since you last got the car tuned. Now the car is running 8% richer.
What MUST be done to avoid this is to drive the car for 20-30 minutes to see where the cruise fuel trim settles. Then you need to adjust the latency table in the rom and flash the ECU. Then drive the car another 20-30 minutes and make sure that the cruise fuel trim has settled at +/-5 to +/-7%. Then and ONLY then, should the tuner even consider to tune the AFR. If the AFR is tuned and the fuel trims are inconsistent, then the AFR will be inconsistent as well.
On the 2008 Evo Xs we now have the ability to STOP the cruise fuel trim from impcting WOT operation. This is the result of Tephra’s hard work. I have started implementing this on the 2008 Evo Xs that I tuned. I am not certain if the changes to the 2008 Evo X rom will also work to the 2010 rom. So I am still using the old strategy on the 2010 Evo X.
The main point here is to take your time when tuning an Evo X with an intake. First make sure that the trims are consistent and then tune the AFR.
On antox’s car, I spent the better part of 40 minutes getting the fuel trims nice and steady. We took a nice Sunday morning cruise down the 405 @ 60 mph and then returned to the logging site to do the tune. I wonder if there are dyno tuners out there that will drive the car on the dyno for the better part of 40 minutes to get the fuel trims nice and steady before the AFR is tuned.
This is the 2nd 2010 Evo X that I have tuned and once again it proved to run leaner stock than a 2008 Evo X that I have tuned with similar mods. The roms are exactly the same with the exception of lean spool being enabled on the 2010 Evo and disabled on the 2008 Evo. Take a look at the following overlay:
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jeovany/overlay_08_10.gif
Both car have similar mods and are on the stock tune. The solid lines and bracket-less tags are for the 2010 Evo. The dotted lines and bracketed tags are for the 2008 Evo. Even though the 2010 stock Evo is running higher boost (solid red line), its AFR (solid pink line) is consistently leaner than the 2008 Evo’s AFR (dotted turquoise line). You would expect that the higher boost would make the car run richer AFR, but that is not the case when lean spool is enabled. One downside of lean spool is that it does make AFR variable under certain rpm/boost/weather conditions.
Another characteristic of the stock 2010 Evo X is their tendency to knock when modded w/o a tune. Mitsu being Mitsu, enabled lean spool (made the car leaner), but kept the same advanced timingÂ* :tickedoff: So now you have advanced timing AND a leaner AFRÂ* :tickedoff:Â*
So when you mod the car (TBE, Intake, MBC), the car inevitably knocks like crazy. By comparison the 2008 X does not knock much when you add power mods to it. Take a look at this overlay between this 2010 Evo and another 2008 Evo:
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jeovany/knock_08_10.gif
The solid lines are for the 2010 Evo and the dotted lines are for the 2008 Evo. The 2008 Evo did not have more than 2 counts of knock. Focus on the knock counts (pink solid line) and the timing (blue solid line). Notice how the timing gets pulled as the knock counts increase on the modded 2010 Evo with the stock tune. By contrast, the modded 2008 Evo with the stock tune has no more than 2 counts of knock across the rpm range.
The lesson here is the following: If you have a 2010 Evo X AND you mod it, then you MUST get it tuned. The car will knock for sure even if you only have minimal mods. The 2010 Evo in the chart only had an AEM and a TP as serious power adders.
Now that we did some baseline logs and fixed the fuel trims. I finally got to tune the car. We started the first log at 10:10 AM and finished the last log at 12:55 PM. Here is an overlay of the stock tune and the final tune:
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jeovany/tune_stock_overlay.gif
The boost at peak was pretty much the same between the dotted (stock tune) red line and the solid (final tune) redline. The tuned boost, however, is higher than the stock boost from 4000 rpm onwards. By 6000 rpm, for example, the tuned boost was 4.88 psi higher than the stock tune; by 7000 rpm redline the tuned boost was 3.73 psi higher than stock.
The AFR was also leaned out more than the stock AFR. Between 4000 and 6000 rpm the AFR was made 0.65 points leaner than stock. From there to redline the AFR was leaner by an average of 0.90 points. To compensate for the higher boost and the leaner mixture, as well as to combat knock, I had to drop the timing advance to 15* by redline. That is the most timing that the car ran while keeping the knock demon at bay.
The final run of the day that we made was the mandatory WOT to redline from 1st gear to 4th gear. This is very important to do when tuning boost from the ECU. This will give you boost consistency per gear.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jeovany/boost_gear.gif
In every gear tested the boost peaked at 24-25 psi and tapered to 18-19 psi by redline. I rarely see boost plots like these done on the dyno. I can only surmise that they are not done. Ofcourse, I can always be proven wrong ;)
Finally, here is the e-penis chart. As always I do a baseline (unless the customer does not want one). W/O a baseline a fancy dyno chart tells you nothing about the gains that the car made. It just gives you a number. This car made good gains over stock, but not as high as the 2008 Evo X since the baseline on the 2008 Evo X is much lower.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jeovany/dyno_b4_after2.gif
Since the peak boost was slightly higher than stock, the peak torque gains we 29 ft-lbs. The top end gains were much more significant. The car had the following top end gains:
Max power gain: +47 hp
Max torque gain: +38 ft-lb
The customer was pleased and so was I. He now wants to do an E85 tune at a later date. I can’t wait :D
UR UICP/LICP.
UR intercooler
AEM intake
TBE
TP
Intakes on an Evo X tend to skew the fuel trims positive. The AEM intake can skew the fuel trims up to the maximum ECU allowed 12.5%. Meaning the ECU will add 12.5% more fuel because it sees a lean condition. This is done during idle and cruising. The bad part is that the cruising trim is added to WOT AFR operation.
So let us say that you went to a shop and the shop installed an exhaust and an intake on your car. Then they put the car on a dyno and tuned it. They did not drive the car long enough for the cruise trims to get to their maximum limit. For the sake of argument the trims were at +4% and the AFR was set at 11:1.
You drive the car for a while and then you log the AFR again and you notice that your AFR is richer at 10.1:1. What the hell happened? Well dear reader, your trims have drifted positive into +12%. So the ECU added 8% fuel (12-4=8) since you last got the car tuned. Now the car is running 8% richer.
What MUST be done to avoid this is to drive the car for 20-30 minutes to see where the cruise fuel trim settles. Then you need to adjust the latency table in the rom and flash the ECU. Then drive the car another 20-30 minutes and make sure that the cruise fuel trim has settled at +/-5 to +/-7%. Then and ONLY then, should the tuner even consider to tune the AFR. If the AFR is tuned and the fuel trims are inconsistent, then the AFR will be inconsistent as well.
On the 2008 Evo Xs we now have the ability to STOP the cruise fuel trim from impcting WOT operation. This is the result of Tephra’s hard work. I have started implementing this on the 2008 Evo Xs that I tuned. I am not certain if the changes to the 2008 Evo X rom will also work to the 2010 rom. So I am still using the old strategy on the 2010 Evo X.
The main point here is to take your time when tuning an Evo X with an intake. First make sure that the trims are consistent and then tune the AFR.
On antox’s car, I spent the better part of 40 minutes getting the fuel trims nice and steady. We took a nice Sunday morning cruise down the 405 @ 60 mph and then returned to the logging site to do the tune. I wonder if there are dyno tuners out there that will drive the car on the dyno for the better part of 40 minutes to get the fuel trims nice and steady before the AFR is tuned.
This is the 2nd 2010 Evo X that I have tuned and once again it proved to run leaner stock than a 2008 Evo X that I have tuned with similar mods. The roms are exactly the same with the exception of lean spool being enabled on the 2010 Evo and disabled on the 2008 Evo. Take a look at the following overlay:
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jeovany/overlay_08_10.gif
Both car have similar mods and are on the stock tune. The solid lines and bracket-less tags are for the 2010 Evo. The dotted lines and bracketed tags are for the 2008 Evo. Even though the 2010 stock Evo is running higher boost (solid red line), its AFR (solid pink line) is consistently leaner than the 2008 Evo’s AFR (dotted turquoise line). You would expect that the higher boost would make the car run richer AFR, but that is not the case when lean spool is enabled. One downside of lean spool is that it does make AFR variable under certain rpm/boost/weather conditions.
Another characteristic of the stock 2010 Evo X is their tendency to knock when modded w/o a tune. Mitsu being Mitsu, enabled lean spool (made the car leaner), but kept the same advanced timingÂ* :tickedoff: So now you have advanced timing AND a leaner AFRÂ* :tickedoff:Â*
So when you mod the car (TBE, Intake, MBC), the car inevitably knocks like crazy. By comparison the 2008 X does not knock much when you add power mods to it. Take a look at this overlay between this 2010 Evo and another 2008 Evo:
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jeovany/knock_08_10.gif
The solid lines are for the 2010 Evo and the dotted lines are for the 2008 Evo. The 2008 Evo did not have more than 2 counts of knock. Focus on the knock counts (pink solid line) and the timing (blue solid line). Notice how the timing gets pulled as the knock counts increase on the modded 2010 Evo with the stock tune. By contrast, the modded 2008 Evo with the stock tune has no more than 2 counts of knock across the rpm range.
The lesson here is the following: If you have a 2010 Evo X AND you mod it, then you MUST get it tuned. The car will knock for sure even if you only have minimal mods. The 2010 Evo in the chart only had an AEM and a TP as serious power adders.
Now that we did some baseline logs and fixed the fuel trims. I finally got to tune the car. We started the first log at 10:10 AM and finished the last log at 12:55 PM. Here is an overlay of the stock tune and the final tune:
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jeovany/tune_stock_overlay.gif
The boost at peak was pretty much the same between the dotted (stock tune) red line and the solid (final tune) redline. The tuned boost, however, is higher than the stock boost from 4000 rpm onwards. By 6000 rpm, for example, the tuned boost was 4.88 psi higher than the stock tune; by 7000 rpm redline the tuned boost was 3.73 psi higher than stock.
The AFR was also leaned out more than the stock AFR. Between 4000 and 6000 rpm the AFR was made 0.65 points leaner than stock. From there to redline the AFR was leaner by an average of 0.90 points. To compensate for the higher boost and the leaner mixture, as well as to combat knock, I had to drop the timing advance to 15* by redline. That is the most timing that the car ran while keeping the knock demon at bay.
The final run of the day that we made was the mandatory WOT to redline from 1st gear to 4th gear. This is very important to do when tuning boost from the ECU. This will give you boost consistency per gear.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jeovany/boost_gear.gif
In every gear tested the boost peaked at 24-25 psi and tapered to 18-19 psi by redline. I rarely see boost plots like these done on the dyno. I can only surmise that they are not done. Ofcourse, I can always be proven wrong ;)
Finally, here is the e-penis chart. As always I do a baseline (unless the customer does not want one). W/O a baseline a fancy dyno chart tells you nothing about the gains that the car made. It just gives you a number. This car made good gains over stock, but not as high as the 2008 Evo X since the baseline on the 2008 Evo X is much lower.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jeovany/dyno_b4_after2.gif
Since the peak boost was slightly higher than stock, the peak torque gains we 29 ft-lbs. The top end gains were much more significant. The car had the following top end gains:
Max power gain: +47 hp
Max torque gain: +38 ft-lb
The customer was pleased and so was I. He now wants to do an E85 tune at a later date. I can’t wait :D